Subscribe
Spain’s Vox work in 2023 has served to link ECR to likeminded individuals and organisations in Latin America.
The only conservative party in Spain has developed a comprehensive international agenda that sets it apart from the work of other parties in the spectrum, while carving a significant space within the opposition.
It is far to say Vox has a foreign policy agenda focused on Latin America. While its work with ideologically similar parties in Europe is worth highlighting, it is Vox’s initiatives in the countries of what it calls the ‘Iberosphere’ (the historical and cultural area of influence of Spain and—to a lesser extent—Portugal) that take the crown jewel.
Vox is today’s Spain’s third largest party, right behind the Socialist Party (S&D) and the Partido Popular (PP, EPP). The former, it has helped advance the rise of socialist movements within Latin American countries. The latter has neglected to counteract these forces.
Vox is filling this vacuum with a much-needed work to contain forces contrary to democratic European values. Its vehicle to advance its international agenda is its think-tank Fundación Disenso. Santiago Abascal, the leader of Vox, is the president of this organisation.
In little more than three years, Disenso has established an extensive network of politicians and civil society organisations both from Latin America and the European Union. Its work has served to connect parliamentatians and establish strategic alliances to fight the influence of the Sao Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group. These leftist organisations claim to defend progressivism and the values of social justice. However, they are little more than dens of narco-communists dictators like Nicolás Maduro, the Ortega family, and its Brazilian and Colombian cheerleaders Lula Da Silva, and Gustavo Petro, respectively.
Disenso’s flagship initiative is Foro Madrid (the Madrid Forum). Its mission statement includes a commitment to defend “liberty, democracy, and the rule of law.”
The ‘Madrid Charter’ is Foro Madrid’s founding document. By the end of 2023, more than 400 parliamentarians from Europe and Latin America have signed it, including prominent members of ECR-linked parties, such as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. On the other side of the ocean, the recently inaugurated president of Argentina—Javier Milei—stands out as one of the Charter’s signees.
Through Foro Madrid, Disenso—and by extension, Vox—has become a bulwark against the Sao Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group, a fact ackwoleged even by Pedro Castillo, the imprisoned former leftist Peruvian president who attempted a coup.
The work of Disenso in Latin America is palpable. They have become registered international observers for almost 10 general and regional elections in Latin America. Their presence during the elections have provided the legitimacy and necessary guarantees to the international community about these electoral processes.
In addition to the network of parliamentarians, more than 18 thousand politicians, businesses men and women, and civil society leaders have signed the ‘Madrid Charter.’
Throughout this work, Vox is attempting to bridge European parties to Latin American political groups that fight against the attacks to the Rule of Law by the dictatorships of its region and their allies.
The influence of the Sao Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group span beyond Latin America. They have links and have allegedly fund European political parties. It is no secret the admiration of the Spanish Deputy PM Yolanda Díaz for the Venezuelan regime, for instance.
Former Socialist Spanish PM José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has become one of these regimes’ main ambassadors. Together with his frequent trips to China, lots of questions are being raised about the loyalties of European Socialist Parties.
While the socialist tide since to be turning back with the recent victories for liberty in Argentina, Ecuador, and Paraguay, there is still work to be done to contain the Sao Paulo Forum and the Puebla Group. Their network and their influence (both in Latin America and Europe) should not be underestimated. This is why supporting the fight for liberty, democracy, and the Rule of Law becomes a matter of survival for our way of living.